This features section explores career paths, professors to know, industry changes, and other forces shaping the experience of online MHA students. These features cover the realities of pursuing an online degree, including applications tips, internship requirements, scholarship prospects, and advice for finding a job upon graduation.
Check back regularly for updates, including interviews with program administrators, career profiles, and application tips.
July 20, 2023
The last Baby Boomer turns 65 in 2030. That’s also the year when one in five Americans will be over 65, and an estimated nine million will be over the age of 85—a nearly 50 percent increase from 2020.
July 12, 2023
Today’s healthcare administrators face stormy waters. Public health emergency funding is ending, while inflation has kept costs high. Meanwhile, understaffing creates its own vicious cycle, increasing burnout and worsening working conditions, making recruitment and retention even more difficult.
June 30, 2023
The way in which the United States finances, delivers, and regulates care in nursing home settings is unsustainable (NASEM 2023). Immediate action is necessary to correct decades of underinvestment and unaccountability. Advocates are heartened that the issue is receiving significant attention from the federal government and the general public, but disagreements remain.
June 21, 2023
It’s time to revolutionize long-term care. This segment of the healthcare system has endured enormous challenges over the last few years. Over 200,000 long-term care facility residents and staff died from Covid-19 during the pandemic. The Baby Boomer generation has entered old age, a demographic shift that reinforces how important long-term care and nursing home care are. Administrators and other staff in long-term care have had to repeatedly make do with too few resources and too much regulation.
June 9, 2023
Learn how ChatGPT and other new AI chatbots do that by slashing the time clinicians and administrators spend on paperwork, giving physicians more time to interact with their patients. Then, find out how AI is specifically cutting the time spent on insurance authorizations and administrative reporting, two of the leading causes of clinician burnout. Finally, discover why healthcare administrators and clinicians who understand how to use AI platforms effectively will enjoy competitive advantages in the job market, plus more promotions and raises.
June 6, 2023
According to a report by Kaufman Hall, 2022 was the worst financial year for hospitals since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Median monthly operating margins were in the red for 11 out of 12 months, and approximately half of all surveyed hospitals finished the year with a negative margin. Despite the figures improving in December, many experts predict that expense pressures will continue well into 2023.
May 4, 2023
American health insurance generally falls into one of two categories: public and private. Public insurance is run by and at least partially paid for by the government, while private insurance is often run by for-profit companies and paid for by employers and individuals. While all insurance types vary in how much they cost and what they cover, fairness in treatment shouldn’t vary simply based on who is or isn’t picking up the bill. Unfortunately, it sometimes does.
April 19, 2023
Discriminatory practices have shaped many structural elements undergirding modern society, and healthcare is no exception. Racism and xenophobia can and do cause avoidable disease and premature death among groups often already disadvantaged (The Lancet 2022). These forms of discrimination are hardly relics from the past: some of today’s most cutting-edge technology has racist and xenophobic biases built into it.
March 30, 2023
Research on bias outcomes in healthcare is relatively recent, with more studies performed each year as the problem can no longer be dismissed. However, research suggests that the difference in the type and level of care provided has less to do with overtly sexist healthcare providers and more to do with an unconscious process.